DR Congo's former Minister of Justice, Constant Mutamba, was sentenced to three years of forced labour on Tuesday, September 2, after a court in the capital Kinshasa found him guilty of embezzlement of public funds.

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Mutamba, who resigned in June amid corruption allegations, was in court on Tuesday when the judge ruled that he embezzled $19 million meant for the construction of a prison in Kisangani, Tshopo province.

He was ordered to return the money.

The Court of Cassation also stripped Mutamba of the right to vote and the right to stand for election for five years after serving the sentence.

He was banned from accessing public functions and deprived of the right to conditional release and rehabilitation.